The Secretary shall establish the Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program (referred to in this section as the “Program”) to assure an adequate supply of, and encourage recruitment and retention of, public health professionals to eliminate critical public health workforce shortages in State, local, and Tribal public health agencies.
A loan repayment provided for an individual under a written contract under the Program shall consist of payment, in accordance with paragraph (2), for the individual toward the outstanding principal and interest on education loans incurred by the individual in the pursuit of the relevant degree or certificate described in subsection (b)(1) in accordance with the terms of the contract.
For each year of obligated service that an individual contracts to serve under subsection (c) the Secretary may pay up to $50,000 on behalf of the individual for loans described in paragraph (1). With respect to participants under the Program whose total eligible loans are less than $150,000, the Secretary shall pay an amount that does not exceed ⅓ of the eligible loan balance for each year of obligated service of the individual.
For the purpose of providing reimbursements for tax liability resulting from payments under paragraph (2) on behalf of an individual, the Secretary shall, in addition to such payments, make payments to the individual in an amount not to exceed 39 percent of the total amount of loan repayments made for the taxable year involved.
An individual who fails to comply with the contract entered into under subsection (c) shall be subject to the same financial penalties as provided for under section 254o of this title for breaches of loan repayment contracts under section 254l–1 of this title. In the event that a participant fails to either begin or complete the obligated service requirement of the loan repayment contract under this section, the Secretary may waive or suspend either the unfulfilled service or the assessed damages as provided for under section 254o(d) of this title, as appropriate.
The Secretary shall evaluate the pilot program at the conclusion of the first cycle of recipients funded by the pilot program.
The Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives a report on the evaluation under subparagraph (A). The report shall include, at a minimum, outcomes information from the pilot program, including any impact on recruitment and retention of health professionals with expertise in infectious diseases and emergency preparedness and response activities.
The report under this subparagraph shall include a recommendation by the Secretary as to whether the pilot program under this subsection should be extended.
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2025.